As the overall enterprise-oriented market continues to reduce its investments in innovation, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) click here concept is a hit idea. Intel rightly understands that employees want to use their devices for official work, which also provides a way to bring the enterprise closer to consumers. This flexibility to access office information from any location and time leads to better customer relations for business and better management of personal and social life for employees with better efficiency. BYOD provides a win-win situation for both employer and employee.

BYOD scenario worldwide

The Middle East has the highest BYOD-adoption rate, but high growth markets such as Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Russia are quick to embrace the new trend with their rapidly growing Android, BlackBerry and laptop users. The United States is just starting to take BYOD seriously, but European industries, including the United Kingdom, are still not open to the idea. While studies conducted by CISCO and IBM show the increasing popularity of this trend worldwide, research conducted by Gartner shows that IT trend-setters are failing to implement policies that support this popular practice.

Savings on investment and improved efficiency are key to any growing business. What’s stopping European businesses from implementing BYOD? Well, their rationale is strong – IT security concerns.

Data security

While there are many mobile device management (MDM) software offerings in the market, the end node issue remains an unsolved puzzle. Employees are accessing highly sensitive business data and vulnerable networks and services using a single device. Since data can be accessed by any trusted party, the risk of a data breach is a ticker bomb in cases where an employee loses their device. Nor does a BYOD employee have to hand over devices when he or she resigns from the current organization. Thus the work related data/passwords/apps/contacts remain with him as long as he continues to work for another employer. In addition to data breaches, this can result in lost customers and business for enterprises practicing BYOD. Even though the company has a BYOD policy including MDM software installations to protect sensitive data, Ovum’s research revealed that many employees have installed social networking, messaging and file sharing apps on their devices.

Will MDM Drive the Future of BYOD?

IT think tanks predict that MDM software, while providing companies with some security, will actually kill BYOD’s popularity among employees. Modern MDM capabilities challenge the user experience of Android, BlackBerry and tablets, hurting usability. Businesses will be reluctant to fully embrace BYOD unless MDM provides data protection. On the other hand, the very limited enterprise deployment of MDM excludes employees from BYOD programs.

As data security is the biggest challenge in question, striking a balance is key to optimizing BYOD. This has led to a dramatic change in the work culture of modern organizations based on cost reduction and increased productivity among employees. In fact, employees prefer an integrated platform for personal and professional life. As the big fish get involved, let’s see how they address the current needs – developing MDM software for better user experience and data security.

A few years ago it was common for companies to insist that their employees control mobile devices for use in and out of the office.

    Then came the explosion of the Apple iPhone and more people relying on their own devices to access work, leading to the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend… a catch-all 22 for employers; They can allow people to benefit from their ability to connect to work data and systems 24-7… but accept the potential security risks that naturally arise from relaxed corporate information standards.

Mobile devices in the workplace are now very diverse due to the wide range of options available to users; iPads, smartphones, and notebooks are all popular, and the type of devices employees use affects how management manages their security. More and more companies are accepting BYOD and benefiting from it on many levels, but still… the pitfalls are only being recognized and some of them still lack real solutions. .

Getting to grips with BYOD

Allowing employees to use their own devices can have a detrimental effect on security, as people can slip through the net and access their own devices regardless of regulations.